Casserole and a Mystery Knit.

Howdy, and how is your Saturday? I have a touch of a sneeze, but besides being stuffy this has been a wonderfully relaxing day. I gave myself a facial and gave the littlest native a facial because he wanted to be a swamp monster like me. He actually didn't like it and wiped it off minutes later. 

I wanted to keep the relax laid back theme so for dinner I whipped up a tuna casserole. This recipe is from my babysitter. She used to watch quite a few kids and would make batches of these and freeze them. Enter a rainy day and she would pull one out of the freezer and make it for lunch. It was everyone's favorite. Years later I sought her out and snagged the recipe. I've tweaked it slightly, but my kids will eat seconds, thirds, and left overs the next day. It's not healthy or fancy but it's a comfort food and reminds me of Bonnie nearly every time I make it.

Tuna Casserole:

6-8 cups cooked rice (I've used brown, white, and minute...they all work!)

1 can of tuna

1 can of corn (whole kernel)

1 1/2 cans cream of mushroom

Shredded cheese (I use cheddar or Mexican blend)

Mix cooked rice and about 1/2 c. of shredded cheese. Add corn, tuna, cream of mushroom to rice. Mix well. Pour into a  13 x 9 inch baking dish. Top with shredded cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 35-45 minutes or until the cheese is nice and bubbly (or if you are like me, slightly burned).

You could serve this with a a salad or (and my personal preference) a loaf of French bread with butter. Hey, I said it wasn't healthy or fancy. It is pretty dang delicious though!

Now, switching gears to needles, I have been OBSESSED with knitting. Just last week on Ravelry my knitting group, Year of Swatches started a mystery knit a long (KAL). I've never participated in one, so this is rather intriguing to me. I've knitted up the first clue and this is what I have...

One more thing before I jump off of here. I read The Lightening Thief in the Percy Jackson series after the littlest native suggested I read it. I'm always down to read what they are into. The book is NOTHING like the movie. It also happens to be BETTER than the movie. I suggest you read it with your 8-10 year olds!

Have a great weekend. (I'm currently watching Knocked Up in my bed. Contemplating a nap.)

To Station 6-7

Big shout outs to Station 6-7 for the most amazing tour last Saturday. We now have multiple scouts that want to be firemen. Thank you for your time, patience and humor!

A Hat and A Hair.

So long time no chat. I really have no excuse. I spiraled down a big hole of lazy and have just recently decided to try to forge my way out. I like to think of it as hibernating, but truthfully I don't find it very beneficial to my health and have therefore decided to "get off my ass" as it were.

Happy New Year! Did you make a resolution? Do you even believe those exist? I really sorta did. Although I'm not promising to stick with it. I resolve, my friend, to manage my time better. I learned that being lazy can be fun as long as you are not putting other things off to do so. So I plan to use my time more efficiently. 

One of my mountain-high bane-of-my-existence priorities in life is keeping a clean house. I suffer from undiagnosed OCD and ADHD. Like I can't even pay attention to the dirty laundry without freaking out. The cleaning schedule I was on made me feel like I was chained to adulthood. Like the only fun thing that existed was a clean couch. (Ew.)

So on a whim I searched for a cleaning app. Most of these consisted of list making tools, which was not what I needed. I needed a mom. An app that would give me a list of things to accomplish in the day and no more. I FINALLY found that app. It's called Motivated Moms and the cleaning list is provided for you. You can, of course edit the list to better fit your schedule, but this thing has you cleaning things you don't even think of, like cleaning the outdoor garbage can. At first when I perused the list I did a mini freak. It looked massive. Now that I've been in it a week though, my house FEELS so much cleaner and I don't feel like a slave to all products anti-bacterial. Apps for the win!

To further my effort to manage my life/time, another resolution of mine is to rid myself of the yarn stash that has accumulated in the living room. The day I went to the craft store and bought a skein of yarn just because, I realized I might have a small problem. My first "stash buster" of the year is this little cabled beanie. It took about 3/4 of a skein. (Or in my case one entire ball from my basket.)

I added the oversized pom pom on the top because it seemed a little bare and that seems to be the style right now (at least according to Pinterest). Anywho, I'd put this at easy. Definitely not a beginning piece, but nothing to be afraid of either! Here's the link if you'd like to knit up one of your own:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/temperance-hat

I know most of this is thrilling. However, the most exciting thing that happened last week was  the chopping of the hairs. I've never really had a "bucket list". Although, trust me, I've tried. I've been growing my hair out for years. No reason why, just did. Finally I couldn't handle it anymore. It was getting caught in purse straps, seatbelts, zippers, arms...the list goes on. I told the stylist, "Cut.It.Off!"

That lady whacked off 15+ inches! I was so excited that I hadn't cut it sooner or colored it! Since high school I've wanted to donate to Locks of Love. I posted the above picture on Facebook because I was sooo excited to accomplish this. Then people were thanking me and commenting how proud they were and I felt foolish because I wasn't looking for that. Then I realized I was so focused on doing something that I had wanted to do for over 15 years I 

totally forgot the reason behind it. Then I got all sorts of mushy down in my heart thinking about my annoying foot long hair being someone else's happy dance best day ever moment and thanked my lucky stars that I even had hair to grow or chop.

On that note, I say to you, Cheers! Happy New Year. Here's to the promise of positive change and hope for great things to come. :)